


The Treasures We Never Buried

by Smokeycut



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-09 15:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7808038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smokeycut/pseuds/Smokeycut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Batman AU. What if Jason Todd and Cassandra Cain were linked to The Court Of Owls rather than The League Of Assassins? What happens when they rebel against The Court? Will Batman aid them? Or stand in their way?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Teaser

Simon Hurt eased into his favorite recliner and sighed, glad to be home after a long day of work. He had made some excellent breakthroughs with his patients, and was ready to zone out and watch some Jeopardy. Tomorrow he would begin the process of healing their minds, so they could serve as productive members of Gotham society. If he lived to see tomorrow.

A cool blade pressed against his throat, and a voice, mechanically filtered, growled in his ear. "Doctor Simon Hurt. Do you know who I am?"

Panic set in, and the good doctor found himself shaking, unable to respond. 

"Tsk tsk. No shaking, doctor. Wouldn't want any accidents, would we? This knife is very, very sharp, and I may just nick the wrong artery..."

Hurt slowed his shivering, and squeaked out a question. "Who a-are you?"

"You should know the answer, doctor Hurt. I was one of your patients. I was one of your _Talons_. You made me, and now I end you. Unless..."

"U-unless what? Unless _what?!_ "

The assassin smirked.  
\------------------------------------------------------

A shadow stood atop the roof of The Iceberg Lounge, holding his white mask in his hand. He smiled at the city below, and his plans to eradicate it's sickness. The owls would be purged by their own talons, and the city would be free.

The information he had obtained from Simon Hurt would be a great help in his quest, as would his young ally. His gaze drifted to the left, and stopped when it met her's. 

She signed a short message, _Where do we go?_

_Follow me,_ he signed back before putting on his mask. 

The Owlman and his Talon would save this city, and no one could stop them. Not The Court of Owls, not The Batman, not even death itself.


	2. Death

Robin's mouth was filled with blood, his ears looked like cauliflower, and his left leg was bent backwards. He was crying, shaking, moaning. But Joker kept swinging his crowbar.

THWAK. "C'mon kid. Ya gotta give me _something!_ Banter with me a lil'!"

THWAK. "Uh, boss? I think ya broke his jaw. He pro'lly can't talk." A thug with a nametag saying "Hi, my name is Johnny" pointed at Robin's mangled face.

THWAK. Joker turned towards Johnny, sneered, and shrugged. "Hey Frankie! You think Johnny's got a point? Should I just blow the roof off'a this popsicle stand and be done with it?"

Joker's other thug, a scrawny, pasty man, nodded silently.

"What about you, Sheila? Should I stop battering your boy?" Joker caressed Robin's mother's face with his crowbar. She tried to scream, but her mouth was duct taped shut.

Joker pulled a revolver from his jacket, and dropped the crowbar. It rattled against the concrete floor.

BANG. A bullet to the head ensured that Johnny would never have another thought on the subject.

BANG. Frankie's brains splattered against the wall.

BANG. Sheila slumped over, dead.

"Three bullets left, boy. Wanna play a game?" Joker knelt down and questioned the bleeding boy wonder.

Joker fired two more shots at Sheila's corpse, then spun the cylinder. He aimed the gun at Robin's head and spoke softly. "Three pulls of the trigger. One."

Click. The clown put the barrel to his own temple.

Click. He aimed it back at Robin.

Click. 

"Huh. Whattaya know. Lucky dog, now you get to spend the next couple'a hours in a building with some corpses! Won't that be a whole heap'a fun? Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

With that, the clown strolled out of the building, whistling "London Bridge". Robin was left alone, bloody and bruised and sobbing. Just as he was blacking out, he heard the door to the warehouse open, and the sound of heels clicking along the concrete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is sorta, kinda the first chapter of this story, with the last chapter being a teaser/prologue. I'm gonna use this story to explore what's happening in the present day, along with showing how the timeline diverged from the comics.


	3. Records

Cassandra Cain stepped into the café hesitantly. A forest green hood pulled over her head, her hands jammed in the pockets of her sweatshirt. Making her way to the counter, she prepared what she would say, repeating it over and over in her head.

"What can I get you?" The redhead behind the counter smiled at Cassandra, adjusting her glasses. She was rather cute, Cass noticed, and seemed to have a fondness for facial piercings.

"Um, one black coffee, one assam tea... please." Cassandra smiled, happy she was able to say it all properly. She paid with a few crumpled up bills, then hurried outside.

It had been a week since Jason learned the names and addresses of all the members of The Court, along with a promise not to squeal about what had transpired. In return, all they had to do was promise not to destroy Simon Hurt's life and reputation. It was a good deal, Jason thought. He could always go after Hurt again when this was all over. He'd spent the next few days making plans, but tonight was going to be special. 

Tonight they were breaking into the GCPD.

When Cass arrived back at the abandoned chemical factory they were squatting in, she found Jason welding, which was new. She wasn't aware that he even knew how to weld. She sat down and watched him work, sipping her tea as she did so. She picked up Jason's mask and began studying it. It was white as snow, with two black eyes, and tiny ears coming up from it. She traced her finger along the curved V shape near the mouth, a beak that had been carved in, completing the mask's owl-like visage. 

Jason sat down next to her, his welding mask pushed up, exposing his face. His red hair had grown a bit longer since his days as Robin, but his most striking feature was the scar running from under his left ear, across his mouth, and ending at his chin. A gift from the clown. Cassandra handed him his coffee, which he accepted happily. He smiled, which was a rare sight these days. He hadn't smiled much since he was 15, but these past few weeks Cass caught him doing it more frequently. She looked over at his welding project, and he followed her gaze. 

_New armor._ He signed. _It's going to give us an edge against The Court._

Cass nodded, impressed. It was clear that the armor wasn't very far along. An open notebook was laid out on a table with Jason's blowtorch. No doubt it contained his sketches and plans for the suit.

They sat in silence for a while longer, until Jason finished his coffee. Cass stood, looked up and around at the catwalks and empty vats, then sprang into motion. She scaled a vat, then leapt to a nearby catwalk. Jason followed her, smirking. They ran and flipped about, occasionally stopping to throw a punch or a kick, or to dodge an attack from the other. It was a sort of game they had developed since settling down here two weeks back. They'd use the factory as a mock battleground, a gymnasium. The game ended when Cass pinned Jason to the side of a chemical vat and made him cry uncle.

They walked back to where the welding equipment was set up, and Jason checked the time. Ten thirty. They'd head out in half an hour to begin their mission. Jason pulled on his leather jacket, grabbed his belt, and slipped his mask on. Cass stripped out of her hoodie and pulled on her old Talon uniform, a black outfit with gold accents along the chest, a pair of wrist guards, boots, and a matching black hood with golden goggles. She slung a belt of blades over her chest and they set out.

The motorcycle ride to the precinct was uneventful, and they soon made their way to the roof of the building. Owlman stopped and glared at the bat signal, causing Talon to stop as well. She studied the emblem, then turned to Owlman.

_What is that?_ She signed, tilting her head slightly.

Owlman paused and clenched a gloved fist before responding. _Something that failed. We'll be better._

Talon knelt down and picked the lock on the roof's entrance to the department, then the two slipped inside and crept down the stairs. Owlman knew the precinct inside and out from his time as Robin, and signed the necessary directions to Talon.

She snuck down another flight of stairs, then paused. She heard voices. Two people, a man and a woman. Talon pressed herself to the wall next to the door as it opened, and slowed her breathing. A tall Black man and a shorter Latina woman walked through the doorway and down the stairs, missing Talon's presence. She slipped through the door as it swung closed on it's own, and proceeded to her target. 

_Down one flight of stairs, then the third door on the right._ Owlman had told her. She broke into the room as silently as she had crept through the building, and waited in the shadows for Owlman's signal, as ordered. After a few long moments, all the lights went out. Signal delivered. 

Talon grabbed the box Jason had sent her here for. It was old and weathered with age, she felt as though it would disintegrate in her hands. Just then, the door opened.

"Hey, Allen, you in here? It's Mulcahey. The power just went out, and I wanted to make sure you and Montoya were okay." The woman pushed her way into the room, then froze when she saw the thief. Talon sprung into action, kicking the detective in the ribs, breaking two of them and knocking her back into the hallway. She leapt on top of Mulcahey and delivered a punch hard enough to knock her out cold. 

Owlman arrived just in time to watch the cop hit the linoleum. He approached the scene, told his sidekick to grab the evidence, and then pulled a gun from his jacket and aimed it at Mulcahey's face. Talon grabbed his arm and tugged it away.

_What are you doing?!_ Talon was furious, completely forgetting about the evidence.

_I'm cleaning up this city! I remember her, Cass. She's as dirty as they come, just as bad as The Court! She deserves it._ Jason gestured at the detective with his free hand, trying his best to remain silent.

Talon tore off her hood, tears welling up in her eyes. _Nobody deserves it. She can be better, like us. We were bad, but we're not anymore! This... this is bad. Killing is what The Court does. Not us. Please..._

Owlman paused, then sighed. He pocketed his gun, then grabbed the evidence box and walked away. Talon followed. They rode home in silence.

Cassandra curled up to go to sleep that night, but found she couldn't. She walked over to Jason, who had been studying the files ever since they arrived back at Ace Chemicals. Cass wrapped her arms around Jason and squeezed tight. Jason turned around and hugged her back. 

_I'm sorry. This all started because of what they made us do, and I was ready to go back down that path. Thank you for pulling me back, Cassie._

Cass smiled, and wiped a tear from her eye. _Goodnight big brother._

_Goodnight kiddo._ With that, Jason turned his attention back to the files in front of him. 

It was a pet project of a homicide detective from the 40s by the name of William Pettit Junior. A series of murders, dating back to 1859, all unsolved. Detective Pettit had never managed to link the cases, or find motive for half of them, but he had a hunch they were connected. Jason knew they were. These were all victims of The Court Of Owls.


	4. Hiatus

Hey, sorry for not updating in a while. I have some not so great news.

This fic is going on hiatus. I've been trying to wrap my head around the next few chapters, but I just can't get into the groove for it, no matter how hard I try. I'm still going to be updating other fics in the meantime, and I do plan on returning to this at some point. It's just going to be a while.

Thank you for reading. It means a lot.


End file.
